


霧の中で (In The Fog)

by hananinare



Category: Figure Skating RPF
Genre: Edo Period, Japanese Mythology & Folklore, Kitsune Yuzuru, M/M, Merchant Javier, an AU inspired by Kagura dances and music
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-27
Updated: 2017-10-13
Packaged: 2018-11-19 13:06:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11314011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hananinare/pseuds/hananinare
Summary: In which Javi gets lost and encounters the biggest mystery in his life.





	1. Chapter 1

It‘s been almost two months since the Spanish mission had arrived to Japan, embarking on the port of Nagasaki and greeted by the somewhat timorous looks of locals, yet the sights of an unexplored foreign land were still hard to get used to for Javier Fernandez. He had joined the mission as a member of an expanding merchant guild, getting a chance to bring home the unknown and so desired goods. Many others had declined the invitation to spend half a year in the land of mountains and unpredictable natives, he as a young man who had always set his sights farther that his motherland took the offer with growing curiosity.

The land was enchanting, otherworldly even, some might say. It had its secrets and its wonders seen in the crevices of people‘s faces and the outstretching mountains in the horizon. It was both terrifying and utterly tempting, and never letting go easily.

\---

The party had been on the sixth day of the pilgrimage trip to Kyoto, travelling though the rough countryside of the mainland, about half a week away from reaching the destination. A group of twenty five men and horses laden with goods were set to spend the night at a neighboring town, and the dusk was setting in fast as they stepped out of the rocky forest into a field leading through a shallow valley.

The sight opening before his eyes was quite a charm for Javier‘s eyes. The paved road followed a rather steep slope going down over the green field, stretching out a few miles ahead to the mountain sides. A thick fog was starting to settle further in the distance, enveloping the greenery around them.

Javier followed the the somewhat enigmatic act of nature, slowing down his pace and taking a deeper breath. A horse he led by its harness made a disgruntled noise by his side. The fog he observed made a faster move towards the path, covering almost the entire valley and slowly creeping up the road. The group of men were obviously tired after the day long journey up the mountain, so there wasn't a single sound other than the horseshoes monotonically hitting the dirt disturbing the eerie silence.

An unexpected jolt of his horse was what made Javier leave the trace-like state he had entered, as he felt the sack originally tied to its side slip off. The horse neighed audibly, stopping in its tracks. Rubbing his palms over its back in a calming motion, Javier tried locating the lost cargo, looking behind him. Just a few moments later, his eyes noticed that the brown bag had rolled down the slope into the wet grass.

Eyeing the moving party in front of him, he cursed behind his breath. The thick mist had already reached the road and traveled over it in an explainable speed, turning the people a few meters ahead of him into shadowy figures. It would only take a few seconds, mostly a minute to pick up the cargo and load it back on the horse. According to the leader of the party, the village they were supposed to stay over night wasn't more than a kilometer away. The worst that could happen was him arriving the last and having the worst spot to sleep.

He took a step on a muddy slope, feet barely clinging to the dirt, hands trying to balance himself out. From here the lost sack seemed to have rolled down even further into the grassy field, almost covered by the tall blades of grass and a milky veil of fog. The cold wetness of the evening dew seeped through Javier‘s bottoms, sending a shiver down his spine. The chilling dampness of the air clung to his skin like bewitching fingers, and Javier halted as he approached the cargo. 

It was then when he realized that all he could see around him was sheet of white. His heart thudded loudly and another curse slipped from his lips as he took the bag and turned around, trying to locate the slope. All he could see was the suffocating mist, covering the tracks like a well-woven blanket. 

Javier shut his eyes and took a breath, trying to settle his mind. It was close. Just a few steps. But then again, a few steps in a wrong direction and he‘s lost. If he could be any more lost than he was, that is. It took a minute, frozen in one place, for him to realize that he could just call for help. The party couldn't have gone far, and if they answered to his call, he could trace them by their voices.

However, the echoing of his voice seemed to fill the void without any being hearing it. The only sound around Javier was the drowning silence, as if he had gone to some inhumanly place and it absorbed all that was alive. Throat raspy and in pain, he stopped in his tracks, dropping the cargo. Never in his entire life had he felt such rush of fear come over him. Hands hugging his frame, Javier kneeled down, familiar words of praying resonating in his mind with a completely new meaning.

Moments passed like hours, turning to days and months, decades and ages, as he rocked back and forth, desperately trying to keep himself warm, staring into the blank distance. He felt as if he had fallen into complete trance, the cold numbing his limbs and making his mind weary, when his eyes started making out a shadow in the distance.

Javier blinked, clearing his sight. It made no sense. The fog was too thick to see more than a meter in front of him, and yet he was starting to make out the features of a human figure standing in the distance. It was just there, not moving, as if it was inspecting him. Javier squinted, trying to make it out, hand instinctively reaching out.

The next thing he remembered was the ache in his throat as he screamed as loud as humanly possible. A rush of cold sweat creeping up his spine. The figure moving closer. A face, so pale, skin like marble. Red eyes and bloody lips. Black hair, a serene expression. And the sudden and strangely calming warmth on his wrist, It leading him through the fog.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Javier tries to figure out what happened the previous night, only to discover an answer he did not expect.

A lone ray of sunshine woke Javier up the next morning. It took him a while to figure out that he was slumping by a tree on the edge of the same forest the party came from last night, his lone cargo bag lying by his side. The field he got lost in last night looked as clear as it could be in the morning light, no trace of the mysterious fog, his horse or even his own path from the grassy meadow to where he was sat. 

Taking a shuddering breath, he closed his eyes, trying to recall whatever happened the night before. All he could see was white, the cold lingering on his body as if it was still present. Then he saw a face. Nothing more but a pale, almost mask-like expression, features so smooth and yet so sharp. Enchaning. Inhuman. 

He knew he was supposed to be scared of it, whoever that was, lurking in the mist and watching him. And yet all he could feel was a soothing warmth, the sense of drifting off just before one fell asleep. The heat of Its hand holding his, drowning in the drowsiness. Javier had felt safe in the arms of the unknown. And then it was all black. 

\--- 

The man found his way to the village his party was staying at at about middday. It took him a while to get rid of the dizziness he felt and settle on the track of others, carrying a heavy duffel bag his horse should‘ve aided him with. As soon as he reached the village, baring almost no difference to dozens of others he had passed by earlier, Javier was met by somewhat shocked looks of the locals, quickly exchanging whispers as he passed by. 

As Javier was about to try communicating in a weird mixture of lost Japanese words and sign language with any nearing native, he heard a soothing sound of Spanish in front of him. 

„Fernandez! I can‘t believe it,“ a man in his fifties approached Javier, taking the cargo from his hands in a swift motion, and patting his shoulder esctaticly. „ _Dios mio,_ no one here thought you were alive.“ 

Neither did I, he took a breath that made his ribcage rattle. 

\--- 

He had eaten, poured himself over with cool water that counted as a bath and changed when a tall man entered the small living space. He was Antón de Olmedo, a scholar from the University of Valencia, chosen for the mission because of his knowledge in Japanese language as well as the culture, and also one of the few friends Javier had. Taking a seat on the tatami by the door, he took a deep look at Javier. 

„So you survived the night. We thought we had lost you,“ Antón offered Javier a small smile, lightly shaking his head in awe. 

„Yeah, well, I thought I lost you too,“ the answer was vague, as if he was trying to deal with the idea himself. 

„Rodrigues and Galla noticed a part of cargo was gone as we arrived. We thought we‘d misscalculated,“ Antón almost snickered, eyeing the floor. „And then your horse came down from over the hill. Looked scared. There was no sight of you. And a part of the goods was missing, too.“ 

He raised his head, sight landing on Javier‘s face, narrow eyes asking the question. Javier cleared his throat. 

„It- the cargo, it dropped, when we were walking across that field in the south. I saw the fog, but I never thought- I didn‘t think it would move so fast. I thought I would be quick, pick it up, load it again, catch up with the party. But the fog,“ his hands quivered as he took a sharp inhale. „The fog covered the road and I was stuck there. Barely any visibility. I tried calling out for you.“ 

Jorge raised his eyebrows, eyes widening slightly. 

„The whole party went calling out for you. No answer, just silence,“ Javier‘s heart sank. „Some wanted to go out and search but the leader advised us to stay here. He was right. The fog was thick, no way we could‘ve come back.“ 

Javier‘s head was buzzing as he was trying to process what his friend was saying. A shiver ran down his spine as he musstered on an answer. 

„I didn‘t- the was no sound. Maybe... Maybe the wind, maybe it redirected the sound, or...“ 

The stumbled over his own words as Antón stared at him in concern. They both knew there was no wind. The night was as still as ever, not a single branch on the trees in the forest moving as they passed by them earlier. Javier breathed deeply. He could trust his friend, he could rely on him not to assume he went insane over night. He swallowed thickly before opening his mouth again. 

„There was someone. Or something.“ As Javier lifted his eyes, he could see Antón‘s interest peak in seconds. „A man. Well, I think. I saw a silhouette in the fog and...“ 

The scholar‘s eyes were peering through Javier‘s as his expression got serious. 

„It- he, he saved me. But I don‘t remember much.“ 

The both men knew it didn‘t make much sense for a man to appear wandering in the thickest fog they‘ve ever seen at dusk just like that. It was borderline crazy for the party to attempt to look for Javier, let alone for a single person to find their way in the mist. It was barely possible to survive in the freezing cold of the evening dew and the milky white. 

Antón swallowed, looked up at the man in front of him as if looking for an answer in his face. Javier said nothing. Moments passed and the scholar snickered, shaking his head lightly. 

„The locals, they have a story. About a creature, a demon. They call it _kitsune_ , a fox spirit. They say it tricks people, plays with them as if they were its toys. That‘s why they never go out at night. Afraid it might hurt them.“ 

Javier froze. Antón was a Christian just like him, and they didn‘t believe in things like these. Yet his friend‘s words sounded strangely serious, despite the chuckle that seemed to be meant only to hide the feelings of the man. It was foolish, believing in this. Childish, a tale of the savages. It was a simple man, lost in the fog just like him. Maybe a hermit even. He saved him, that was what mattered the most. Yet somehow Javier felt as if the ends were connecting. 

„It‘s just a legend, of course.“ Antón cleared the looming silence, offering Javier a crooked smile. It didn‘t look very confident. „What is important, is that you are alive. And I am glad. Now get some rest. We move again tomorrow.“ 

As Antón stood up to leave the room, Javier could see his fists clenching and unclenching a if somethign was bothering him. It was stupid, Javier repeated to himself. But as he lied down to rest that night, he couldn‘t chase the image of the being staring at him and the warmth on this wrist away from his mind. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for the chapter update being so so late, writer's block got the best of me. >_<  
> As usual, thank you for reading and hopefully enjoying this weird creation of mine. Make sure to check out [@yuzuvier.hcs](https://www.instagram.com/yuzuvier.hcs/) on Instagram for more Yuzuvier related content, cute dabbles and mini fanfics.  
> Other Yuzuvier fanfics of mine and my mates listed below:
> 
>   * [Sleep On The Floor](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10972899)
>   * [Poohmance](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11308425)
>   * [After The Rain](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11475291)
>   * [Poohmance II](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11549847)
> 


**Author's Note:**

> First of all, apologies for the lack of any actual Yuzuvier content but I promise it's on the way.  
> This piece is a weird post-midnight creation with weird sources of inspiration, but I hope you enjoyed it so far. More to come soon~


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